Containers usually possess a container wall, which surrounds an interior space. A mouth serves for filling the interior of containers, for example, with liquids or powder-form substances or otherwise free-flowing materials. These may also involve pourable container contents, e.g., pills in the case of pharmaceuticals or even granulates, e.g., in the case of fertilizers in larger containers. The mouth of the container can be closed with a closure, for example, with a screw cap. After unscrewing the cap, the container contents can be removed via the mouth by a consumer.
A container for fat-containing liquid products having a container closure is described in US 2006/0231519 A1. A material that fuses upon applying infrared radiation and closes the container is contained in the stopper.
In order to prevent the contents from unintentionally leaking from containers or to prevent oxygen or other gaseous components from the environment to penetrate into the interior of the container in an undesired manner, disc seals are additionally disposed in container closures. These disc seals can be sealed onto or glued onto or otherwise fastened onto the mouth of the container, for example, by means of induction sealing or also in another way, and thus seal this mouth. In this case, the disc seal still also needs to be broken or removed in addition to unscrewing the screw cap or otherwise opening the closure, or a mechanism which carries out the removal of the disc seal from the mouth of the container must be provided in the container closure.
An important field of application for such containers, among others, is agrochemicals, as well as other product contents that lie in high-priced or security-relevant fields. Such product contents are very costly in certain circumstances. In this case, containers with a content of several liters may also be involved. Examples are, e.g., concentrated agrochemicals that are mixed with other fluids, for example, water or the like, after they are removed from the container and prior to their utilization.
In addition to agrochemicals, motor oils or other high-priced fluids or pourable products supplied in cans would also be a field of application. Cosmetics, liquid, powder-form or granulate-form pharmaceutical products, or also instant products in the food industry, e.g., soluble coffee powders or the like also come into consideration.
Since these product contents lie in the high-priced field, it is very lucrative to illegally fill a similarly appearing and also similarly smelling, but non-functioning or even highly diluted “genuine” fluid into containers, to provide them with false or counterfeit labels and to sell them at the price or approximate price of the original containers. For the interpretation of the term “high-priced”, it is also to be considered that these products are also supplied in countries, in which, for example, the price for motor oil has a considerable relevance in relation to the average income of the population, and thus multiple falsifications are made even in the case of these products.
This is harmful not only for the purchaser, since he receives a worthless or low-value content for a relatively high price, but under certain circumstances, it is also dangerous, when toxic or in any case unexpected additives will be added, or essential components, e.g., those that are relevant to security or safety, are missing. In the case of motor oil, for example, with such counterfeit products, old oil is mixed in, so that, as a consequence, material damage may also occur.
This is also very unpleasant for the provider of the original product, since, first of all, sales to customers who are interested in it will be lost, and, secondly, considerable hassle and even damage to their reputation may arise under certain circumstances, when the customer acquires a presumably genuine, but unusable product, from a third party.
Providing disc seals in the above-described form represents a protection against such measures, but only against very simple counterfeit attempts. Such a disc seal just needs to be broken by a counterfeiter when acquiring a genuine container with content, in order to remove the valuable content and to be able to replace it with a cheap counterfeit product. If the counterfeiter subsequently attempts to sell the thus-modified container, then it is possible for the purchaser to determine the absence of the original disc seal, and in this way may recognize the counterfeit attempt in a timely manner when buying it.
The situation is similar with an alternatively possible disc seal, i.e., with so-called pressure seals that are introduced without sealing on, and with which a securing ring that is to be broken when the container is first opened maintains the closure on the mouth of the container.
By means of a somewhat professional operation and with corresponding device-related equipment, however, a counterfeiter can again introduce a new, easily obtainable, familiar disc seal and/or a securing ring by means of induction sealing or adhesive after filling the container with the cheap, counterfeit product content and thus conceal his actions.
These dishonest measures with counterfeit products are rapidly increasing, since many containers can also be relatively easily imitated overall and can be manufactured, disc seals and screw caps are readily obtainable in the market, and in this way, the counterfeit products can hardly be distinguished from the genuine ones.
It has already been attempted to employ counterfeit-proof or counterfeit-resistant labels for the containers, which are protected from being imitated, in contrast, for example, with holographic or also chemical means, without anything further. The customer can then keep on hand corresponding devices with which he can be assured of having in front of him a container with a content having a genuine label, so that he no longer will frequently acquire counterfeit products.
It can even be attempted to protect the entire container against counterfeiting by an appropriate selection and/or an appropriate treatment of the container material or the finished container with corresponding means.
This simply leads to the fact, however, that the manufacturer and the supplier of counterfeit products attempt to gain possession of empty containers after they have been used. They collect the empty containers, which, e.g., are discarded by farmers or other end users or, in many countries, they build up regular redemption organizations in order to gain possession of these articles that in fact have no value for the end user.
Now, since genuine containers with genuine labels are involved, it is no longer possible to recognize counterfeits with the corresponding technical devices. It is only necessary for the counterfeiter to achieve an orderly sealing of the container, which is possible, of course, in the case of a professional counterfeiting of such high-priced products and is also carried out in practice.
Thus, the previously indicated dangers are again indicated, although the dishonest counterfeiter is forced into greater expenditure to overcome these problems.
This greater expenditure, however, is increasingly taken into account, since it is very lucrative to introduce into the original container a fluid that is extremely similar to the original fluid, smells the same, but has no function, or to introduce a highly diluted “genuine” fluid. Subsequently, the containers are screwed with counterfeit or even with used original screw closures.
The agrochemicals or other valuable product contents counterfeited in this way are introduced on the market in extraordinarily large quantities. Since at first they cannot be distinguished or can barely be distinguished from the genuine products, they are acquired at very high prices by customers interested in them, usually at prices only slightly below the prices of the original products. It can often only be established after a year or after a harvest cycle that the supposedly highly effective agrochemicals, which have been obtained at high cost, are completely or in any case largely ineffective, since they involve a counterfeit or adulterated fluid.
The problem arising in this way is very problematical not only for the customers, for example, for the farmers who may lose entire harvests in this way under certain circumstances. The reputation of the original product may also suffer and the sales of the manufacturer of the original product are also attacked, since part of these sales are made by third parties having counterfeit copies.
Therefore, a considerable interest of the end user as well as the supplier of the high-priced and very special filling materials remains unchanged: finding a measure by which this dishonest process can be eliminated or at least can be made more difficult.